Talk:Gender of connectors and fasteners

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Wow, no references. And for USB, who is he male and who is the female conenctor? Keul (talk) 16:25, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Shouldn't the third and fourth paragraphs be switched? 68.226.124.199 03:54, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

I am trying to understand the precise definition of male and female connectors. Is it really true that the C13 plug/connector is male? The oracle that is google seems to think its female, and so do I. I would like to see a proper reference for this classification. As far as I can see, the C13 is a wonderful example of a female plug. Arbor 18:11, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I agree, and I suggested this to Smyth on his talk page, and his response suggests to me that he didn't really mean to imply it wasn't. I haven't got around to changing it; feel free to do so, especially if you can cite references. Sharkford 13:52, 2005 Jun 6 (UTC)

"The gender of a connector is determined by the structure of its primary functional components—i.e., the conductors of an electrical connector, or the load-bearing parts of a fastener—and not by secondary features such as covers, shields or handles that may be installed for environmental protection, safe operation, etc."

This has always confused me. It would be great if we could have more examples, like D-subminiature, XLR, IEC connectors, and so on. Pictures showing male and female would be even better. - Omegatron 17:17, July 11, 2005 (UTC)

`The gender of a connector is determined by the structure of its primary functional components' ... much of the time, perhaps, but not everybody agrees. For example, the `Futaba 12" Servo Male Connector J' at http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXH441&P=0 is called male, though looking at the connectors themselves one would call it female. (This connector has metal `holes' into which pins from the matching connectors fit into. The assigned gender of this connector obviously comes from that of the plastic housing rather than the `primary functional components'.)

Doug McLaren 21:49, 7 March 2006 (UTC)


Male connectors are more easily damaged by bending. I believe that the Apple Macintosh was designed with all female connectors on the computer, as it is easier to replace a damaged cable than a port on the computer. Can anyone verify this? DPoon 13:53, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Earlier Macs that used D-shell connectors only had female connectors of that type on the computer, I believe in part for the reason you cite. Other connectors were generally female as well, though the IEC-320 power input jack would probably be considered male. I would say that all the connectors used on modern Macs are female as well, though I could envision an argument about the gender of USB and Firewire chassis connectors. Whatever gender you think they are, they are well standardized and designed to minimize the likelihood of damage from repeated insertions. One other possible exception is the console serial port used on the Xserve Macs. These are the same DB-9 types used on PCs and they may be male, I'm not sure. In this case Apple needed to be compatable with the console switches used in server farms.--agr 05:42, 14 July 2006 (UTC)